Proto Kendall Square

In Cambridge's housing-starved Kendall Square, a physically constrained site proved a big challenge: how do you transform an office and university-dominated neighborhood into a vibrant mixed-use residential community? The key was to reimagine the structure as an agent of change at the urban scale.

We petitioned the city to reclaim 20 feet of Ames Street to find more space for the building and reconfigure the streetscape, creating a friendlier pedestrian connection between the innovation hub of Kendall Square and the university life of East Cambridge. The resulting tower is carefully mediated both in massing and façade between the varying scales and contexts of its surroundings. 280 new apartments were created, including a percentage of affordable units distributed throughout the building. Units range from micro-size studios to three-bedroom units, providing a variety of types and affordability to serve the diverse Kendall Square market. The micro-units are a location-specific inclusion that is relatively new to the Boston area, designed to serve students at nearby institutions like MIT, or anyone who may simply enjoy living in a small, efficient, and economical space. Proto Kendall Square was designed by FXCollaborative with interiors by Stantec.